


Just Like Christmas

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Friday Night Lights
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-20
Updated: 2008-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-25 08:07:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1640579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Their first Christmas together, her senior year of high school, she stands behind her father at the door just after dinner.  Eric is earnest, his cap twisted between his hands and the screen door propped against his shoulder, when he looks her father in the eye."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Like Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> I've never written more than 300 word crossovers for this fandom, so it was a little terrifying, and I'm hoping it's true to the canon of how long Tami and Eric have been together. It was fun, though. Yay for my first Yuletide!
> 
> Written for amykay73

 

 

Their first Christmas together, her senior year of high school, she stands behind her father at the door just after dinner. Eric is earnest, his cap twisted between his hands and the screen door propped against his shoulder, when he looks her father in the eye and says, "Evening Mr. Hayes," and asks if he couldn't please borrow Tami, just for a few hours, and he'll have her home before it gets too late. Really.

Shelley danced off hours ago to celebrate with friends, not a question asked, but her father looks at her with resignation before stepping aside to let her out the door. She knows how it's driven him crazy these last few months, watching his sensible daughter swoon at every glance from this former high school football star.

-

Eric's old truck bangs and hisses steam the whole drive to the school. The weather's been stranger than anything these last few weeks, warm and then cold and then almost stifling one day last week. Tonight it's chillier than she expected and Eric pounds at the vents on the dashboard praying for heat before giving up and offering her a blanket.

They park at the far end of the school lot and he bounds out of his side of the car to open her door before she has the chance. He's got her hand in his before she's even got her feet on the ground and, the blanket trailing from her shoulders, he guides her out onto the football field.

"Why're we here?" she asks him, because when he asked what she wanted for Christmas she said "Surprise me!" and she's been curious ever since. He just gives her a smile, squeezes her hand a little tighter, and she can feel the sweat pooling in his palm, the little reminder that he's not always so calm, cool and collected. "I like it here," he says.

She's nervous, too, and she's not really sure why. They're just exchanging gifts, just seeking refuge from her curious parents and his imposing roommate. When she sees the blanket spread out in the end zone, though, she feels the knots in her stomach all twist together into one large tangle.

He tugs her down onto the ground beside him and the blanket is scratchy wool. She bunches some in the fingers of her free hand and feels it itch at the sensitive skin.

"You really planned this out?" she asks and he nods.

"I wanted to do something special for you," he says. "Because you're so special."

"That's sweet."

She's never really been the sort to daydream about husbands and babies and shedding her maiden name for something she scrawled across her math notebook--she believes in going after her own dreams instead of asking someone else to do so for her--but with Eric she thinks differently. With Eric she thinks about how "Tami Taylor" sounds nice, how she's always liked alliteration. This isn't first love, but she thinks it's probably true love. She's eighteen but she thinks maybe, just maybe, this could last.

It wouldn't be the wildest thing.

"Presents!" she says, a little loudly and her voice echoes across the field. "I have your present. Do you want it?"

He smiles at her. There's this way he smiles, with his whole mouth widening and his eyes squinting until he has to duck his head because she makes him so happy. "You don't want yours first?' he asks and she shakes her head. 

"No, I want to give you yours."

The tickets have been burning a hole in the pocket of her jeans since she bought them last week, and the eagerness to hand them over, to see his whole face light up because he's been talking about this game for what seems like years...she digs into her pocket for the envelope and she couldn't be happier to see him happy.

"Tami Hayes, you might just be the most perfect girlfriend ever," Eric says when he realizes what she's given him. "And I mean seriously, I don't think I've ever known anyone quite so perfect as you before."

Just two days ago they got in a fight about college. About how she was thinking about going out of state, to California, maybe, or New York. "I have a right to my own dreams, Eric," she remembers yelling at him. "The rest of my life can't just be football, you know!" When they said their apologies later that same night she remembers how he seemed so sincere. "We'll figure something out," he said, because that was what they were going to do. No sense in crying over whatever the distance might turn out to be. "We'll figure something out."

"Do you want your present?" he's asking her now, and she tries not to look too eager when she holds out her hands. The box he places inside of them is small and round, and when she lifts off the top there's a small gold heart on a thin gold chain looking back at her.

"If you don't like it that's okay," he says. "I kept the receipt. I just...I wanted to get you something that you would like."

"I love it," she tells him. "It's beautiful!"

And it is. Simple and inexpensive, but beautiful all the same. He gets up on his knees behind her to fasten it around her neck, and when she's let her hair fall down across her back he rests his hands on her shoulders.

"Merry Christmas, Tami," he says, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and resting his chin on the crown of her head.

-

They park out in front of her house, the truck hisses as he turns of the engine and the sound is sure to have brought her father to the window, but she waits the extra minute in the passenger seat, Eric's fingers wrapped around hers.

"Thank you for the necklace," she finally says, and she dances the fingertips of her right hand around the small heart.

"Thank you for the tickets." He smiles at her and then, "I'll walk you to your door."

He's too embarrassed to do much more than kiss her cheek when he knows her parents are watching, but his hands linger in hers before he nods and turns back to his truck.

The perfect Christmas. 

 


End file.
